Krupicka Shines in Spain, King and Greenwood Win Big at UROC

Weekly trail/ultra racing recap for October 1

The results show that Kilian Jornet won, as expected, but by all accounts, Anton Krupicka (Boulder, Co.) made it a competitive race and pressed Jornet to the line. Krupicka still hasn’t won a race since returning from his long layoff due to injury, but his powerful blow-by-blow recount of his second place 8:49 finish is a thrilling tale of the duel at the front of the race. Surprisingly catching Jornet in aid 44k into the 84k race (52 miles), Krupicka matched Jornet to the race’s final climb, part of a cumulative 20,000 feet of elevation gain, and finished just under the previous course record. Post-race photos show Krupicka beaming under the heavy rain, a smile that shows he really is “back” and a better mountain runner than ever before. In two weeks, he’s due to race South Africa’s Otter Run, a 42k circuit with 8,500 feet of elevation gain where Ryan Sandes holds the course record at 4:40.

Well off the lead pace but impressively on the podium, Dakota Jones (Durango, Co.) chased Jornet and Krupicka to a 9:26 third-place finish. He is next slated to race France’s La Course des Templiers, a 72k race that is the finale for this year’s Ultra SkyMarathon Series.

Despite being a late entrant, Jornet’s Skyrunning success of course continued with an 8:42 first-place finish. The win avenged his DNF at last year’s race and cut 15 minutes from Miguel Heras’ one-year-old course record. When it comes to mountain running, Jornet is just as dominant as any athlete on the planet. He and Krupicka’s finish times are even more impressive when considering the heavy rain and cold temperatures that the runners encountered, for the entire race. So severe was the rain that only 183 of the 900 starters finished. Among those to drop, whether because of weather or injury, were early leader Tofol Castaner and defending champion Miguel Heras, both of Spain, and Hardrock 100 runner-up Joe Grant (Boulder, Co.). Further, the race’s award ceremony was postponed in consideration of the death of one female runner due to cardiac arrest.

As tragic as the women’s race will be remembered, it was an even more compelling finish than the men’s. Challenged throughout by Sweden’s Emelie Forsberg and New Zealand’s Anna Frost, Nuria Picas was pushed to a repeat victory in 10:34, incredibly over an hour faster than her own course record from a year ago. She, like Jornet, is also a local Catalan athlete and the partisan crowd surely was ecstatic to win both the men and women’s races.

With less than five minutes separating the three leading ladies, the race’s outcome was open until the final miles. Frost, unbeatable in ultra races over the past year, was just 30 seconds behind her Salomon teammate. Forsberg, the Pikes Peak Marathon winner, was third in 10:39.

A pair of Cornell alums, each running longer than they ever had before, topped the all-star field at the second annual UROC 100k. Max King (Bend, Or.), just one week after racing 50k and 21k on a back-to-back days, pulled away from Sage Canaday (Boulder, Co.) near the halfway point on the alternately road and trail course. Finishing in 7:57 for an incredible 7:38 per mile average, King earned $5,000 for the win to push his two week total to $6,600. Canaday, newly-sponsored by Scott, was second in 8:12. Given the two 100k debutantes’ immediate success, perhaps they’ll be inclined to attempt the 100-mile distance in the coming year.

Behind the lead two, the next three positions, the final three earning prize money, made for an exciting finish as Jorge Maravilla (Vallejo, Ca.) made a late pass to finish third in 8:24. Ian Sharman (Bend, Or.) consistently moved up to nab fourth in 8:25, matching his finish from a year ago as the only member of last year’s top-5 to again finish in the top-5. Impressively, his run comes just two weeks after winning The North Face 50 regional event in Madison, Wisc. Unknown to most American fans and racers alike, David Le Porho, one of two runners from Quebec inside the top-10, was a surprise fifth at 8:28.

In its second year, the race doubled its prize purse to $20,000 and built an impressive and international men’s field. The race’s success and growth looks even more promising in the coming year as they’ve announced a move to an ambitious point-to-point course from Breckenridge to Vail, Colo. With its route visiting several mountain towns, next year’s race, given fan support, could work to bridge the gap between American and European spectator levels.

Ellie Greenwood (North Vancouver, Bc.) was the runaway winner in the women’s race. Finishing in 9:04, she was eighth among all finishers. Greenwood hasn’t lost a trail race since last year’s The North Face 50 championship, a race that she’ll miss this year in lieu of the JFK 50. Ragan Petrie (Arlington, Va.), last year’s UROC winner, was second in 9:51. A distant third, Anne Spillane (Virginia Beach, Va.) ran 11:02 for third.

Just 25th at this year’s Western States 100, his debut at the distance, Chris Kollar (Missoula, Mt.) had a much more impressive second attempt. Running 17:50 on the mountain course from Utah to Idaho, Kollar took 44 minutes off Mike Foote’s 2010 course record. He was 45 minutes faster than Karl Meltzer’s fastest time on this course, 53 minutes faster than Geoff Roes ran in 2007, and further back, 121 minutes faster than Hal Koerner ran in 2003 (Koerner dropped from this year’s race). A fourth-place finish at the Chuckanut 50k and a second-place run at the Ice Age 50 earlier this year aside, no one would’ve predicted such a breakthrough run for Kollar, just a second-year ultrarunner.

In second, Nick Pedatella (Boulder, Co.) finished in 19:00, just two weeks after running the first 20 miles of the Run Rabbit 100 on Saturday (he dropping after getting off course) and then the full Run Rabbit Run 50 the following day, where he took third and earned a qualifier to the Western States 100. A serial 100-miler, Pedatella has even talked of running Pennsylvania’s Oil Creek 100 in two weeks, a race that he won last year. Matt Hart (Salt Lake City, Ut.), this year’s Tahoe Rim 100 winner, was third in 19:29.

The women’s race saw Darcy Africa (Boulder, Co.) complete her Rocky Mountain Slam with her third win of the four-race series. She won both the Bighorn 100 and the Hardrock 100, was fifth at the Leadville 100, and then won here at the Bear 100 in 22:10, nine minutes under Nikki Kimball’s course record from last year. Shawna Tompkins (Mt. Vernon, Wa.) was second in 23:01, adding to 2012 wins at the San Diego 100 and Badger Mountain 100. Just three weeks after taking second at the Wasatch 100, Sarah Evans (Alta, Ut.) was third in 23:32.

Just two weeks after winning the Run Rabbit Run 100, Lizzy Hawker championed the original ultra. The Switzerland-based Brit completed the 153-mile run from Athens to Sparta in 27:02, finishing third among all runners. As impressive as Hawker has been of late, it’s still shocking that she only finished sixth at Western States. Three runners from New York City topped the North American field as Glen Redpath ran 32:29 and Michael Arnstein and Oz Pearlman each ran 33:22.

In its 29th running in eastern Connecticut, Chris Hayhurst raced out and back on the challenging Nipmuck Trail in 3:19, edging runner-up Godfrey Berger by just as minute. The two were just off Ben Nephew’s 3:17 winning time from a year ago. Keith Schmidt trailed in third at 3:34 and Kristina Marie topped the women’s field in 4:21, 19 minutes ahead of her closest challenger.

Joel Hamilton (Golden, Co.), a former Colorado School of Mines athlete and 1:04 half marathoner, dusted the 50k field with an impressive 3:24 debut for the distance. Jeanne Cooper (Eagle, Co.), an Olympic trials marathoner, was equally impressive in the women’s race with a quick 4:02 finish that chopped 31 minutes from the third-year event’s course record.